Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.3/69539

Title

A high fidelity sample of cold front clusters from the Chandra archive

Author(s)

Owers, Matt S.;  Nulsen, Paul E. J.;  Couch, Warrick J.;  Markevitch, Maxim

Abstract

This paper presents a sample of "cold front" clusters selected from the Chandra archive. The clusters are selected based purely on the existence of surface brightness edges in their Chandra images which are modeled as density jumps. A combination of the derived density and temperature jumps across the fronts is used to select nine robust examples of cold front clusters: 1ES0657-558, Abell 1201, Abell 1758N, MS1455.0+2232, Abell 2069, Abell 2142, Abell 2163, RXJ1720.1+2638, and Abell 3667. This sample is the subject of an ongoing study aimed at relating cold fronts to cluster merger activity, and understanding how the merging environment affects the cluster constituents. Here, temperature maps are presented along with the Chandra X-ray images. A dichotomy is found in the sample in that there exists a subsample of cold front clusters which are clearly mergers based on their X-ray morphologies, and a second subsample of clusters which harbor cold fronts, but have surprisingly relaxed X-ray morphologies, and minimal evidence for merger activity at other wavelengths. For this second subsample, the existence of a cold front provides the sole evidence for merger activity at X-ray wavelengths. We discuss how cold fronts can provide additional information which may be used to constrain merger histories, and also the possibility of using cold fronts to distinguish major and minor mergers.

Publication type

Journal article

Research centre

Swinburne University of Technology. Faculty of Information and Communication Technologies. Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing

Source

Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 704, no. 2 (Oct 2009), pp. 1349-1370

Publication year

2009

FOR Code(s)

0201 Astronomical and Space Sciences

Keyword(s)

1E0657-558;  Abell 1758N;  Abell 2034;  Abell 2069;  Abell 2142;  Abell 2163;  Abell 3667;  Abell 665;  Dark matter;  Extended radio-emission;  Galaxies;  Galaxy clusters;  MS1455.0+2232;  RXJ1720.1+2638;  Temperature;  X-ray clusters

Publisher

Institute of Physics Publishing

ISSN

0004-637X

Publisher URL

http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/704/2/1349

Copyright

Copyright © 2009. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.

Peer reviewed